Me trying to direct the dude at the gas station to the correct nicotine flavor
I can't remember the circumstances, but I was so flabbergasted by one user's inability to understand anything that I wanted to tell them, "I'm sorry. You're unemployable."
Time for a remote session.
I have to regularly help my aging mother (and sometimes neighbors) with their phones. The damn thing of every manufacturer having their own Android version(s)/skin(s), and UI/UX designers changing the layout every new version of an app, makes me want to violently slap their collective faces with a large trout
The annoying part of this is that any good UX person will tell you not to keep changing things around, but they get overruled by MBAs and shareholders.
the newest feature MUST BE most obvious so the metrics make it look worthwhile.
The metrics are the most important thing, haven't you gone to business school?
Literally the shutdown menu being replaced by that shitty ai menu on android. and no manufacturer can object to it cause its a google requirement for being allowed to ship the play store...
Pretty sure that's copying a change Apple made first, turning the power button into an assistant button. Because adding another button for that, is obviously out of the question.
My phone has a dedicated assistant button and the power button is separate. The assistant button can be programmed to do a few different things based on if you short, long or double press it. Some of the functions aren't AI. Some.
There are of course exceptions since there's over a dozen Android manufacturers trying to differentiate themselves. But the default Android behavior used by most of them was changed to match Apple back in 2021 with Android 12.
Last time I checked, both AnyDesk and RustDesk can remote access Android phones. You will need to set it up in person, because the install is too complicated for non-technical person.
You will need to set it up in person, because the install is too complicated for non-technical person.
but also because whatever you search for in the play store, you are lucky if the first result with big font and icon is not malware but just a competitor to what you actually wanted. and guess what will people install. outrageous.
also afaik rustdesk had an abuse problem and now you can only connect aftet a bigtech login.. or with a custom server.
How can she /slap?
It is annoying but their ignorance and unwillingness to learn keeps me employed so I try not to complain too much about it. Plus, most of the people I help are generally appreciative and kind so that makes helping them feel like less of a chore. I can also shoot the shit with them for a little bit and break up the monotony in the day. Silver linings and all that
“Now stop scrolling”
user keeps scrolling
“Seriously stop moving”
user scrolls faster
And that's why remote desktops became a standard in the desktop support industry.
When I worked a help desk job, I once spent seventeen minutes trying to describe to a customer where the semicolon is on a keyboard. I know how long it was because my then-manager listened in and thought it so ridiculous that he sent me the recording of the call because it made him laugh.
This is relevant because the reason I wanted her to type a semicolon was to press shift+semicolon to type the web address used by my employer to grant remote access. I don't remember why she needed to type http: ... It was more than half my life ago. I was probably following a script or maybe I made the mistake of saying the full URL and the customer fixated on it.
Point is, though remote management is better now than it was, it doesn't solve all woes.
I remember decades ago when I did desktop support, we had found a software which could initiate remote desktop without the user (in our network) having to do anything on their end. IT Security was not happy with us when they eventually found out, but it was so goddamn convenient while it worked :D
Phone support in the 1990s was an absolute blast... 30 minutes round and around before "oh, NOW I understand what you're trying to describe."
And the scam industry. Previously the scammers had spent long hours on the phone with my father to get to his bank account (must have been frustrating that it's usually empty), now he has anydesk and they can be more efficient. To bad because he enjoyed the attention.
Listen here, buddy. That needs to be labeled "not safe for IT" because it gave me PTSD.
Apologies
And this is why I left IT. It was either gonna be an aneurysm or a bullet. The meme about tech workers leaving to become farmers is a legit path, my fellow IT workers.
It was a mainframe programmer I knew who left to drive a public bus
I don't use discord. Recently, I tried to get into a community server because what can you do.
They have a bot set up. You get access to an isolated channel and have to confirm you've read the rules by checking a checkbox, whatever good that does. People who use discord may know what I'm talking about.
For the life of me, I didn't get that I have to click the emoji reaction to the post. I write software for a living. I know what reactions to posts are, but they were disabled. Clicking such an emoji to interact with it is a discord exclusive option, usually that opens a list of people who have reacted.
And holy shit was the "community support" dude a dick about it.
Sometimes you just have to be patient with people. It might be the most obvious thing to you, and it's just a blind spot for others, despite everything.
Clicking emoji reactions works the same in MS teams at least.
But yeah, sometimes the supposedly obvious thing just doesn't click. I'm so blind to a lot of modern UX that people seem to like and need help finding the most basic shit because everything is an icon with no text. And giving directions from looking at a screen is just kind of hard.
TIL
You went past it, not you went passed it. Or you (just) went and passed it. Or you passed it.
!iiiiiiitttttttttttt@programming.dev
Too many letters. Ain't nobody going to count them. Wouldn't surprise me if that were a reason people didn't post 😄
True. Should rename to i7t12
Your clients knew how to use the mouse?!?
I had a guy who literally couldn't use a mouse. Master's Degree in electrical engineering, used to manage a department of 10 engineers.
Then he developed a glue huffing habit and ended up working for us...
and then they get angry and bitch about you being rude, unhelpful and how you "didn't know how to fix the problem".
Remote control is the way to solve this. Non-technical people are not good input devices
Imagine a world where everyone has some CLI for most of the stuff, even if alongside GUI
- How do I X?
- Ctrl+Alt+T and paste this.
(Even though it's not good for security)
You want not good for security? Just ssh into their machine and fix it from a terminal.
"I wrote it down and glued it to the screen and its not fixed. Do you even know how to do your job?"
The thing I learned from help desk was a profiency at mastering the mute button.
I don't narrate clicking and typing directions to people anymore. If you want my help, you stand up and I sit down.
Sometimes giving the fish is the right choice.
Teach a man to fish, tomorrow he has already forgotten. If he was going to catch his own fish, he would have learned how to long before this.
I feel like that's more to do with age, than tech proficiency.
Definitely felt the meme when assisting my mother with tasks.
Definitely been the meme when a new UI redesign happened that completely bamboozled whatever priors I had to the point that I seemingly could not notice large buttons on a sidebar that I wasn't expecting.
I think it's neither age nor tech, it's how the human brain works. Same thing happens on a sailboat: "Pull on that red line. The one by your right hand. No, not the blue one, the red one that's directly in front of you, inches from your hand..."
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